title: Neuropsychological psychopathology measures in women with eating disorders, their healthy sisters, and nonrelated healthy controls.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the familial influence on neuropsychological dysfunction in eating disorders (ED) patients by comparing 16 patients with restricting type anorexia nervosa (AN-R), 18 patients with bingeing purging type anorexia nervosa, 20 patients with bulimia nervosa binge-purge type, 21 of the patients' nonaffected sisters, and 20 nonrelated healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-report questionnaires assessing psychopathology and 2 computerized cognitive tasks measuring hemispheric asymmetry for language and visuospatial abilities were administered to all participant groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On the self-report questionnaires, ED patients scored significantly more pathological than the healthy controls, whereas the healthy sisters were similar to the nonrelated healthy control group. For both of the computerized tasks, the behavior pattern of the sisters was similar to that of all, or most ED groups, and were significantly different from the nonrelated healthy controls. In addition, AN-R patients performed significantly worse on the visuospatial task than the other ED groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The dissociation between the performance on the cognitive tasks and psychopathology measures in healthy sisters, when compared to the ED and nonrelated healthy control groups, suggests that disturbances in neurocognitive functioning in ED patients are not necessarily the result of ED-related dysfunction. Rather, this may indicate general individual differences in cognitive processes that may run in families irrespective of the ED condition of the family member. The findings, with respect to the AN-R patients, support a neurocognitive continuum model of EDs in which AN-R represents the most severe form of the illness.
authors.affiliation: University of Haifa, Rambam Medical Center, Ha' Alia Hashnia 2, Haifa, Israel. michalhason@gmail.com
authors.forename: Michal Hason
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rozenstein
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Latzer
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Zohar
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Eviatar
mesh_terms: D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult